Project Description

Challenge

Video games place a high demand on our cognitive systems and teach children skills that are generalizable to other tasks. For example, many games require the player to divide their attention between two different tasks; to ignore distractors; and to assess a situation and quickly make a decision, all skills that are applicable in daily life.

Despite these benefits, little research has been done in populations with neurodevelopmental disabilities to determine precisely which aspects of video games produce which cognitive changes.

Project Summary

The goal of this project was to gain a better understanding of how video games affect cognition to develop an adaptive video game training program to improve attentional and executive functioning skills in children with ADHD, autism, and FASD. The game will be adaptive in the sense that it will adjust according to each child’s strengths and weaknesses, which in turn should produce more significant improvements in the tested skills. Having experimental control over the game will allow the team to determine which aspects of the brain are impacted by specific game triggers.

Once the researchers developed the video game, they recruited 86 adolescents – 25 with autism and 30 with ADHD. At the beginning of the experiment, the researchers decided that the scope of the project was too broad. As a result, they did not include children with FASD in the initial study. The participants were given access to the game online so they could play from home and were expected to play at least six hours per week.   Unfortunately, they did not play the game as much as hoped despite repeated reminders to do so.

The participants underwent tests before and after the videogame training program was complete. These tests included several standardized attentional and executive functioning tasks, as well as eye movement tasks to assess cognitive abilities, and questionnaires focused on behavioural and social skills that were filled out by parents and teachers.

Result

No effects of the game were found, likely because they had not played enough of the game to make an impact on their cognition.  Children did not improve on attentional, executive functioning, social, or behavioural skills from pre-treatment to post-treatment.

Team

Investigators

Elizabeth Kelley, Queen’s University
Daryl Wilson, Queen’s University

Collaborators

James Reynolds, Queen’s University
Douglas Munoz, Queen’s University
T.C. Nicholas Graham, Queen’s University